Megumin

Megumin
KonoSuba character
Megumin as seen in promotional artwork for KonoSuba: Fantastic Days
First appearance	"Oh! My Useless Goddess!" December 20, 2012
Created by	Natsume Akatsuki
Voiced by	Rie Takahashi (Japanese) Erica Mendez (English)
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Arch-wizard
Significant other	Kazuma Satou
Relatives	Hyoizaburo (father) Yuiyui (mother) Komekko (sister)

Megumin (Japanese: めぐみん) is a fictional character from the light novel, manga, and anime series KonoSuba, written by Natsume Akatsuki. In the universe of KonoSuba, a parallel world with MMORPG elements, Megumin is a sorcerer who joins protagonist Kazuma Satou's party in an attempt to defeat the Demon King. Due to the party's dysfunctional abilities, Kazuma quickly gives up on the idea of defeating the Demon King and tries to live a comfortable lifestyle, only to find the circumstances of his daily life force him and his party to encounter and battle the Demon King's generals.^[relevant?]

Megumin has become a KonoSuba breakout character.^{[citation needed]} Critical response to Megumin has been positive, with particular praise focused on the humour of the character's gags. Rie Takahashi's performance as the voice actress for Megumin has also been praised. The character's popularity led to Megumin becoming the lead character in the KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! Legend of Crimson film, which explores her background, as well as starring in her own spin-off light novel series KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World!, which explores her story prior to the events of the main series. The spin-off light novels have since been adapted into both a manga series and an anime television series.

Creation[edit]

When Akatsuki Natsume was creating the main characters of the series, he kept in mind that their party should have the same basic structure as the Dragon Quest games but with major flaws. For Megumin, he said that she's pretty similar to Dragon Quest mages who only want to use the skill 'Magic Burst', a powerful move in that series which drains all of a character's mana points, without any regard for others most of the time. Akatsuki also stated that he made Megumin an "edgelord", because any teenage wizard with power comparable to her would be one.^[1]

Kurone Mishima, the illustrator of the KonoSuba light novels, stated that Megumin was initially supposed to have long hair, but she decided against it after she realised that all of the girls in the main cast had long hair. She instead balanced their appearances by giving Megumin a boyish look with shorter hair. To fit with her chūnibyō characteristics, Kurone gave Megumin fingerless gloves, an eyepatch worn purely for aesthetics, bandages, and a red and black colour scheme. She included a hat in the design as she believed Megumin looked cute with it.^[2]

In Japanese, Megumin is voiced by Rie Takahashi. Takahashi recalls the 2019 film's director, Takaomi Kanasaki, wanting her to give Megumin a cool appeal. For romantic scenes between Megumin and Kazuma, Takahashi attempted to give Megumin a cuter, more girly side, which made a major contrast to most of her previous scenes. In retrospective, Takahashi enjoyed the film for how it further expanded Megumin's story.^[3]

Erica Mendez provided Megumin's voice in the series's English dub, which was produced by the Los Angeles-based studio Bang Zoom! Entertainment.^[4]

Appearances[edit]

Megumin is an arch-wizard who is part of the Crimson Demons race – modified humans who possess dark brown hair, crimson eyes, powerful magic affinity, and chūnibyō characteristics.^{LN 5.5.5} She is in her young teens, being 13-14 years old throughout the main series.^{LN 9.5.5} Megumin only knows a single, incredibly powerful Explosion spell that immediately depletes her mana and incapacitates her after a single use. She refuses to learn any other skills. Due to the strength and resulting fallout of her explosion spell, she struggled to find a party who would accept her prior to meeting Kazuma.^{LN 1.1.7} She eventually falls in love with Kazuma and confesses her feelings to him, leading them to becoming a couple. They initially keep their relationship a secret, however it is exposed when Darkness, another member of Kazuma's party, confesses her love to him as well.

Megumin appears in a spin-off light novel series that focuses on her life before joining Kazuma's party, titled KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World!^[5]. It was also written and illustrated by Akatsuki and Mishima respectively. Taking place a year prior to the events of main series, it explores how Megumin learned Explosion magic, and how she eventually came to meet her companions.^[6] A sequel novel was also released.^[7]

Megumin also appears in the crossover series Isekai Quartet.^[8]

Personality[edit]

Megumin's personality is characterized by her boisterous and eccentric nature, which is further accentuated by her love for theatrics. As a member of the Crimson Magic Clan, she displays chūnibyō tendencies, and she has a fondness for giving strange names to people and things. Despite her cocky and arrogant demeanour, she has a childish and immature side, which is evident in her sensitivity towards her age and underdeveloped body. She often finds herself becoming despondent or aggressive when treated like a child. She maintains a petty rivalry with her old classmate Yunyun, though she secretly sees her as a friend, despite never missing an opportunity to bully and harass her.

Megumin's obsession with explosion magic is one of her most defining traits. She invests all of her stat increases in perfecting her one explosion spell, which she considers to be the most powerful and useful. Her refusal to learn any other type of magic often gets her into trouble, and she will go to great lengths to protect her explosion magic, even if it means disregarding logic and consequences. Despite her shortcomings, Megumin is acknowledged by Kazuma as having the most common sense out of anyone in the group. She is fairly intelligent and adept at magic, and her love and loyalty towards her friends are unwavering, and she will fiercely protect them if necessary.

Reception[edit]

Megumin in particular has been considered one of the series' most popular characters, winning Sneaker Bunko's official Favorite KonoSuba Character poll.^[9] In another poll from 2019, Megumin took second place behind Aqua.^[10] She was also the sixth-highest vote in Newtype's 2015–16 Awards for Best Female Character (Kazuma was third in the male category) and received the most "Other" votes in the Best Girl category in Crunchyroll's Anime Awards 2016.^[11][12] SportsKeeda listed Megumin as one of the ten anime characters "that no one hates" due to how she overshadows the unlikeable heroine Aqua from the same series while her preference for explosions is "impressive".^[13] In analyzing character designs, Otaku USA deemed Megumin's eyepatch to be more of a subversion of common eyepatches in anime fashion as Megumin just uses it for fashion.^[14] An isekai smartphone app^{[clarification needed]} featuring some of Megumin's dialogue was released in Japan.^[15]

The character is often seen as one of the best heroines from KonoSuba, with sites comparing her with Aqua and Darkness.^[16][17] Anime UK News felt the animation of Megumin's explosions were well executed in the anime.^[18] Anime News Network (ANN) said that Megumin and Aqua are the series' best characters as their gags are hilarious in contrast to the less appealing Kazuma and Darkness.^[19] According to ComicBook, the character of Megumin is noticeably popular within cosplayers and merchandising in general.^[20][21][22] Comic Book Resources went to call Megumin one of the most valuable players detailing five events in the narrative, but also criticized her for her poor treatment of Yunyun.^[23] In another article, she was referred to as a great hero, but at the same time had several factors that would make her more appealing as a villain.^[24]

Jordan Ramée at GameSpot found the KonoSuba: Legend of Crimson film struggled to "capture the same tone as the anime series because it splits up the core group of characters" to focus on Kazuma and Megumin which he described as "dull" due to how it leads to repetition of the same jokes, while later gags were criticized for their controversial nature. Nevertheless, he still praised the focus on the duo's relationship for giving them a romantic tone. Furthermore, the further exploration of Megumin and Yunyun's relationship was praised for being explored for the first time.^[25] ANN stated that the film continued to capture the appeal of Megumin's jokes alongside her background while advancing her relationship with Kazuma.^[26] Biggest In Japan stated that the film fully explored Megumin's character and world to the point of overshadowing the rest of the female characters, but certain explored content could come across as problematic.^[27] CouchSoup described Megumin's character and party as one of the worst groups in the isekai genre which makes the series comical, pointing out how useless Megumin can be due to her obsession with only one magic spell.^[28]

The Fandom Post also praised Megumin's role in her spin-off An Explosion on This Wonderful World! for the gags she provides. The success of Megumin's spin-off led to The Fandom Post comment that he looks forward to more spin-offs centred around the other supporting characters.^[29][30] Anime UK also appreciated the handling of other relationships involving Megumin, such as with her pet and her friend Yunyun, which were barely explored in the main series.^[31] In a further review, the same site commented that the spin-off would please any fan of the character.^[32]

The character's voice acting has also been subjected to praise. Nick Creamer of ANN commended Rie Takahashi's role as Megumin for the energy provided in her performance.^[33] Anime UK News felt Takahashi was appealing thanks to her deliveries, but was overshadowed by Kazuma and Aqua's actors.^[34] Erica Mendez's performance as Megumin in the English dub attracted positive responses, with SportsKeeda listing Megumin as one of her best roles due to how her character was written.^[35]

References[edit]